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"The face of the operation is Briatore (referred to exclusively in the film by his colleagues and angry, chanting detractors as "Flavio"), an anthropomorphic radish who spends most of his time at QPR plotting to fire all of the managers."

At press time, Harbaugh had sent Michigan’s athletic department an envelope containing a heavily annotated seating chart, a list of the 63,000 seat views he had found unsatisfactory, and a glowing 70-page report on section 25, row 12, seat 9, which he claimed is “exactly what the great sport of football is all about.”

KenPom ratings are out; M is 4th in B1G

KenPom's opening projection for the season has Michigan 4th in the B1G, MSU 5th and Ohio 1st, for those interested, and the B1G opens as the toughest conference in the land. Worst team by far is Penn State, but they would be ahead of at least one other team in every other conference.

I'm not sure what to make of MSU this year. Nix apparently has lost a lot of weight, which should help, and I expect Green to be all-Big 10, but so much of their season depends on guys who didn't do much last year (Payne, Appling to a lesser extent, since he was pretty solid as a frosh last year) or true freshmen (Dawson).

I've reached out to Pomeroy to see if it's possible to sponsor the M page; hopefully other Big Ten folk will step forth to keep the rest of the league open. I'll let you guys know when he gets back to me.

No clue what to expect out of the good guys (that's MSU) this year. We will probably get bombed by Duke and UNC in the non-conference, as always, and then rally for the big 10 season. HOWEVER, the Big Ten is going to be TOUGH top to bottom.

Personally, I am just very happy to never have to watch Durrell Summers moap around anymore. I "like" the guys personalities on our team which makes it more fun to follow.

I still can't get too fired up for basketball, while football is on though.

He's been around just as long as you. He has actually given us some pretty good insights (like for U of M v MSU match-ups giving us a glimpse at the other side). And he is rational, just as the user name implies.

Green to be the singular most overrated player I can remember watching in the Big Ten. I think he is out of shape all the time, I think he is a defensive liability, I think he is non-factor late in games and I think he is terrified to play where he is most effective which is on the interior. i don't think he really brings anything to the table, and I think he attempts to be a "player-coach" when he is not even really a player.

Have you guessed yet, not a fan of Green. i was also underwhelemed by Payne, and I don't think that Nix can lose or gain enough weight to make him more or less effective inside, as he is simply ineffective, not due to weight, but due to not being good.

In sum, I don't think State is very good, i think they are more likely to end up in the NIT than NCAA, and I expect another season sweep at the hands of the Wolverines.

If Payne can put it together on the conditioning side he could be really dangerous (Conditioning was the problem right? I remember hearing that. If not I don't know why he wasn't out more). He showed some flashes in his 4 minute spurts last year that looked pretty impressive.

Wow, didn't realize that was happening! I live an hour away in Harrisonburg, and will have to figure out how to get tickets and make it to that game!

Where in VA are you? I've found one other guy in my area who's as obsessed with Michigan, and we've been watching games ever since. Would love to find more, or at least maybe meet up for an mgoblog tailgate/happy hour for the UVA game.

I was actually just looking at tickets for this now. I like in Arlington and am trying to figure out if it would be better to go with the Bus & Ticket package being offered by the DC Alum Association or head down on my own. The game being on a Tuseday makes it more difficult to get there.

the Maize and Blue derail Purdue this year and I do agree that Purdue losing Johnson and Moore does hurt them "big time". However Hummel is the kind of player that actually makes everyone else on the floor a better player. This is a unique characteristic that make Purdue better just because he is playing. He can't take ove a game like Johnson or Moore ... but I would never say that he is overrated.

Go Blue!

No place on earth I'd rather be on a football Saturday than Michigan Stadium !

First a question: How does KenPom determine his preseason rankings? Is it solely based on returning minutes and last year's stats?

Second an observation: KenPom has the only home loss against Ohio State. While it would be annoying to get swept by OSU, that would be a pretty good season. It looks like the closest win is a 55% chance against Wisconsin but we have a few close road losses that could be more easily flipped. 48% chance of victory at Indiana, 49% at Nebraska and a 50% chance of victory against Memphis in Hawaii. Hopefully 2 of those 3 could turn into victories and no more than one "surprise" home loss 20-9 (11-9 or 10-8) record. I'd take it.